The present invention relates generally to racks for holding objects such as compact discs and other similar items, and more specifically to providing a motorized rack that can retain and display over one hundred compact disks (CDs), and preferably two hundred or more CDs.
CD holders having no moving parts and in the form of vertical towers or horizontal cabinets are known. But when a large quantity of CDs is stored, it can be difficult to display and select a desired CD, especially if the desired CD is stored in the lower portion of a vertical tower.
Applicants"" parent application disclosed a motorized modular CD storage device or rack that could store a great many CDs or the like in a rotatable rack that could be rotated until the desired CD was displayed, at which time rotation could be stopped and the desired CD removed from the rack.
Notwithstanding that the disclosed rack could store a great many CDs or other objects and has met with great consumer success, there is a need for a rack with at least double the storage of the disclosed rack. Further, since CDs are often used in an environment with subdued ambient lighting, there is a need for a CD rack that can illuminate CDs retained by the rack, for ease of selection in such an environment. There is a need to promote ease of such of use of such racks, enlarged or otherwise, by providing an option for foot-operable variable speed, and stop and go operation of the rack. Finally, enlarging the holding capacity of such racks typically requires a larger base, for reasons of stability. However enlarging the base can require a larger carton in which to ship such racks, thus adding to the overall cost of bringing the product to the marketplace. Thus, there is a need for base mechanism that provides the requisite stability for a rack yet does not require a larger shipping carton. Further, such rack should provide an option to automatically cease rotation upon scan code recognition of a CD or other retained object, or upon voice command from a user. Finally, it is preferred that such rack have the ability to be electronically daisy-chained to other such racks.
The present invention provides such racks.
In the preferred embodiments, storage capacity in a rack is increased by providing inter-connectable holders that form a rotatable loop or belt. In one embodiment, each holder can frictionally retain at least one object such as CD jewel case, and a multi-loop rack comprises side-by-side loops formed of inter-connectable holders that each retain a single object. In a more preferred embodiment, each holder can retain at least two such objects in a side-by-side configuration. Thus, a single loop of inter-connected such holders may be created in which more than one object is retained in each holder. In either embodiment, retained objects can be viewed by a user during loop rotation, and loop rotation can be halted by the user when a desired retained object is observed. At the top (and bottom) regions of the loop rotation, the retained objects are moved through a fanout region in which they may be especially easily removed from the halted loop, e.g., by grasping with the user""s fingers. Each holder embodiment preferably includes first and second walls that are retained a spaced-apart distance from each other that is sufficient to admit and frictionally retain at least a portion of at least one such object. To improve frictional retention, a holder-facing surface of at least one (and preferably both) of the walls includes a projection such as one or more projecting bumps or ridges. A holder that is sized to retain two objects will be approximately twice the width of a single-object holder. A two-object holder can include a partition wall that separates at least a portion of facing surfaces of two objects retained in the holder.
Each holder further includes at least one male (or first-type) interconnect mechanism and at least one female (or second-type) interconnect mechanism. These mechanisms are formed such that the male mechanism on a first holder interlocks with an adjacent second holder""s female mechanism, and the female mechanism on the first holder interlocks with an adjacent third holder""s male mechanism. The rotatable loop formed by interconnecting such holders may be said to be modular in that loop length can be varied by adding or subtracting holders. Each holder preferably is integrally formed as a single piece component, for example by injection molding ABS type plastic.
The rotatable loop or loops are preferably disposed within a modular rack that includes left and right vertical supports that attached to a base member. A rack embodiment comprising separate loops formed from single-object interlocked holders will include a third vertical support intermediate the two side-by-side single-object holders. Although the loop or loops could be manually rotated, for example with a hand crank or simply by moving the holders with a hand, more preferably the loop(s) are rotatable using a single electric motor with associated drive sprockets and pulleys. In the preferred embodiments, there is a single sprocket rotation axis near the top fanout (or turnaround) loop region and a single sprocket rotation axis near the bottom fanout (or turnaround) loop region. However two or more parallel sprocket rotation axes could instead be provided in either or both fanout regions. The rack supports, sprockets, pulleys are preferably made from light weight ABS plastic.
The motor is operable from batteries mounted in the base member, or may be powered from an external source. One or more user-operable controls governs rotation direction and rotation speed of the loop(s) formed by the interconnected holders. One such control preferably is located on one of the vertical support members for use by the user""s hand, and preferably equivalent controls may be disposed on the base member for use by the user""s feet.
The base member preferably has user-attachable base side members that, when attached, enlarge the effective footprint of the overall base structure, thus enhancing stability of the rack. However when the rack is shipped by the manufacturer, the base side members are detached, which permits shipment to occur in a smaller and less expensive shipping carton.
The rack includes an optional light unit comprising, for example, several white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a diffuser. The light unit can be user-attached to a fanout region of the rack, preferably an upper portion of one of the vertical side members. When the motor is energized, the light source illuminates objects retained by the holders for ease of viewing and selection, and will continue to illuminate for a minute or so after motor rotation is halted by the user. Optionally the light unit can be provided with an optical scanner that scans barcode information attached to and identifying contents of objects retained by the rack. A remote control device can be user operable to command electronics optionally associated with the rack to halt loop rotation when the scanner recognizes a barcode desired by the user, the desired barcode having been communicated preferably remotely by the user to the electronics. If desired, the scanner unit could be augmented with a voice recognition system that would halt loop rotation when a user-vocalized identified object was recognized by the scanner. Alternatively, if the user were sufficiently close to the rack to directly see the desired object, a voice command could be used to halt rack rotation to facilitate user removal of the desired object from the rack. A rack may be electronically daisy-chained to one or more other racks such that user commanded rotation of one rack causes loops in all racks to rotate.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiments have been set forth in detail, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.